Curriculum Changes . . . Already?

We got about four days into school and I already felt like I had to switch a couple of things around. I posted my original curriculum on this page a couple of weeks ago. And here are the changes:

First, I had to make some changes to our reading program. Last year we used Teach You Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons and it worked out very well. But it seemed like right around Lesson 50, it took a giant leap in difficulty. And that was right around the time we stopped last year. When I picked it up again this year, Shannon became immediately frustrated and overwhelmed by the lessons. He would see it in his work box and say "Oh, no, not this. I can't do it". At first I was frustrated with Shannon's attitude but quickly realized that it wasn't working for him. So I busted out the Hooked on Phonics program that I got for super cheap at the beginning of summer. I meant to go through the kindergarten program over the summer but we never finished so I'm starting with kindergarten and we should be able to get through first grade by the end of this year. I have already seen a huge change in attitude with Shannon. He is gaining confidence and he is a sucker for a good progress sticker chart.

Chloe and I are reading the Hooked On Phonics readers together and using the sound cards to review the sounds of the letters. Basically I'm preparing to use the kindergarten program with her sometime in the future. I don't think she's quite ready.

We have also ditched the Writing with Ease program. Basically, this program focused on proper writing structure and grammar. At this level, Shannon is only expected to copy simple sentences and summarize passages that I read to him. The problem is, I already have him working in a handwriting program and Handwriting Without Tears has him doing similar copy work in his first grade workbook. And we are doing narration work in his other subjects so I just think at this stage, it is a little much. I will just shelf that text and maybe pick it up again if we finish HWT early this year.

Moving onto math. The problem with using a workbook, is sometimes I lose sight of what my goals are. The worksheets I had him doing last week were all addition problems, which is great, but he gets really frustrated with all of the writing. I think he is focusing so much on forming the number, he is not really learning any math facts. So, to the shelf with you, too, math workbook. I think this book will be useful later on but right now we need to focus on basic math facts. So, I laminated (with my awesome new machine) the flashcards I got with the manipulatives I bought from ebay and Shannon loves to write the answers in with a dry erase marker. It is a lot less overwhelming then staring at a sheet full of problems. We are also using the Cuisenaire Rods that came in the manipulative box. This hands-on approach is working out way better than the worksheets.

Hmmmm, I think that is about all for the big changes. We'll just see how it goes.

Notebook: Week 2

Shannon
Language Arts
   Spelling Workout Lesson 5
   Hooked On Phonics pages
   Handwriting Without Tears: some pages in the workbook and lowercase letters on the chalkboard
   First Language Lessons 4 - 6

Math
   Worked with Cuisenaire Rods and Flash Cards
   Math Facts of 0 - 5 memorized

Science
   Printouts found online - Animal Habitats

History
   Story of the World: Chapters 2 & 3
   Map Activity of Upper and Lower Egypt

Shannon, as the White Crowned King of Upper Egypt, and Chloe, as the Red Crowned King of Lower Egypt

  

King Narmer of Upper Egypt defeats the Red Crowned King and wears both crowns to unite the two kingdoms

King Narmer, hard at work on his map

Religion
   Catechism: Lesson 3

Other
   Lots of reading at bedtime. We always throw in an easy reader or two so the kids can read to me. 

Chloe
Language Arts
   Handwriting Without Tears
   Hooked on Phonics Readers
   Phonics Centers

Math
   MCP worksheets

Religion
   Catechism: Lesson 3

   Book of Saints

New gadgets, gizmos, and free furniture

While putting together my curriculum this year, I realized how nice it would be to have my very own laminating machine. This time last year, I put a few phonics centers together and it cost me twice the cost of a basic laminating machine to get them all laminated. And it was only four centers! So, I bought one of my very own.

Also, I invested in a continuous ink system for our printer. Between homeschooling, coupons, and other general stuff we . . . okay I . . . go through a ton of ink. The entire system only cost $35 on ebay and it came full of ink. That's already less then buying a couple of new cartridges. Sweeeeeeeeet.

We rearranged our downstairs so the kids now have a school room/play room. We used to have a small office with a ton of really bulky office furniture. We moved all of the office furniture out into two separate rooms to make things less crowded and used the old office as the kids' new room. We use it to do school in the morning and then they can play in the afternoon and clean it up again before bed. I wanted to get some desks for them but I was not thrilled about the price of those things. Any surface at the right height would work just fine but I had a hard time finding anything at a decent price. Until my granny was kind enough to find an ad for free school desks in the paper. So I was able to get two desks in really great condition and I grabbed four chairs while I was at it.

 Our old office, empty and ready for a new paint job

I realize how drab that ugly brown curtain is, but it is far more lovely than

the window behind it. One of these days I'll get a prettier curtain.

I know a lot of moms don't like the idea of school desks in their home school but after doing all of our learning at the kitchen table last year, it just was not working for us. I had to keep clearing the table every time someone got hungry. And in this high metabolism family, that happens a lot. And since I wanted to give the work box system a try, we would need more space.

One of these days, when my office isn't atrocious, I may post a picture of it. 

Notebook: Week 1

We started our school year last monday and I must say . . . it is going rather well. I am super impressed with the workbox system and the chore packs I put together. Our home has never been cleaner and school has never run this smooth. I realize we are only a week in but I have always been an optimist.

I plan on writing a post dedicated to the workbox system and the chore pack system so I won't go into that right now. I'll just scribble down what we covered this week.

Shannon
Language Arts
   Spelling Workout Lesson 1
   100 Easy Lessons 51 - 54
   Handwriting Without Tears: review of capital letters
   Writing With Ease
   First Language Lessons 1 - 3
Math
   MCP Lessons 2-4, 2-6, 2-7, 2-8

Science
   First Animal Encyclopedia - characteristics of animals

History
   Story of the World: Intro and Chapter 1
   Map Activity of the Fertile Crescent

Religion
   Catechism: Chapters 1 & 2

Other
Lots of reading at bedtime. Shannon has insisted on reading the words that he can sound out. And Chloe chimes in as well. We also read some books about archeology.


Chloe
Language Arts
   Handwriting Without Tears
   Hooked on Phonics Readers
   Phonics Centers

Math
   MCP worksheets

Religion
   Catechism: Chapters 1 & 2

   Book of Saints

I made schultutes to celebrate our first day of school. I stuffed them with some school supplies

and a couple of books. I didn't make them very fancy but the kids loved them just the same.  

Heart of the Matter Online Conference 2010

Heart of the Matter Online presents their main conference in the summer and a refresher conference in February. If you've been following along, I attended the virtual conference last February and reviewed it here. I decided to go ahead and attend the conference because the speakers were particularly interesting this time around. Also, when I paid my $20 to attend the conference I received a pretty handsome down loadable swag bag. I wasn't sure what to expect from a virtual swag bag but I was pleasantly surprised. I got several ebooks, some downloadable lapbooks, a ton of free downloads from CurrClick. I haven't even had time to look through at all of it yet. And I was entered to win over $2000 worth of prizes. So, all of that cool stuff alone was worth the $20. And now on to the speakers.

Susan Wise Bauer did a session called Literary Analysis: When, Why, and How Should I Teach It? She has some fantastic talks that I had purchased last year from Peace Hill Press. I have decided to use many of her curriculum materials this year so it was great to hear her speak again. Her talks are always very concise and organized and she just has a lovey speaking voice. This particular session was about when and how to introduce literary works to your kids. She had some great information. She went through the three stages of classical learning and presented approaches to take during each of those stages in teaching our kids about literature. Good stuff.




Dr. Stephen Guffanti did two sessions on ADHD and Kinesthetic learning. I gleaned a few nuggets from these two talks. I have done a lot of reading on these subjects but I still manage to pick up a little something from new sources. The interesting part was Dr. Guffanti is, himself, ADHD and dyslexic, so he was able to pull from his own experience. He even talked abut methods his wife uses when interacting with him. That was pretty funny. And he has created a phonics program, Rocket Phonics, that uses a multi sensory approach. I already have so much reading and phonics material but if I ever feel like Shannon, or any of my other kiddos, isn't getting it I would definitely give this a shot.




Melinda Boring's session, Adapting Curriculum for Struggling Learners, was another one I gained quite a bit of knowledge from. She has a great website that I will probably buy a few products from to help Shannon focus and keep him comfortable. For example, we've only been doing school for a week and he has chewed the erasers off at least three pencils. Then he goes to erase, forgetting he has destroyed his eraser, and tears his paper. I am either going to get him something to chew on while he works or maybe a pencil topper would do the trick. Once he started doing this, I had a total flashback of when I was elementary school and did the same thing. And even as an adult I have an oral fixation. Especially while driving my car I need to be eating something, chewing gum, or drinking something through a straw or I feel very unfocused. So, I feel for the little guy. I also think I am finally going to order an inflatable seat cushion. I've been thinking of this for a year now because Shannon can not help but shift in his seat or slump over his desk. He always looks so jittery. It can be pretty distracting . . . for all of us. I think the cushion will help to satisfy his need to move while still sitting in one spot.

Oh, my life would be so boring without Shannon in it.

Lee Binz presented Christian Homeschool Success in High School. She gave a lot of the ins and outs of high school record keeping and other options parents have when it comes to teaching their teens. Like online courses, tutoring, college courses, etc. This seems light years away for me but Lord knows it does go by quickly. I didn't think this session would interest me because my kids are still so small but I found it actually quite fascinating. She has a great website too full of useful information for your high school homeschool.





There were some other sessions that I will probably go back and listen to once I get the link to the MP3s.  Also, at that time the MP3s will be available for purchase at their website. Oh, I also should mention that when I was logged into the sessions, I was able to chat with other participants. That was nice for passing around ideas and such. Also, we could ask the speaker a question if we wanted to. It seemed like no matter what the speaker topic was, someone inevitably wanted to talk about whether or not we let our kids read/watch Harry Potter. So, there was that. All in all a good experience that I will probably take part in next year.

A Sensory-Friendly Homeschool

When deciding whether or not to homeschool, one of the main things we considered was the fact that Shannon has Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD). But, when it came to choosing curriculum last year, I don't feel like I considered his special needs as well as I could have. I am not a kinesthetic learner. I am mostly visual. So for someone like me, teaching kinesthetically does not come naturally. Many moms are so into crafts and projects and I must admit my envy. But, just because it does not come to me naturally, it doesn't mean I will not give it my very best to be the teacher Shannon needs me to be. One of the main advantages of home schooling is I can teach him and understand him better than someone who is not as in tune with him as I am. I have been spending a lot of time researching some SPD friendly tools and curriculum for us to use next year.

Consistency is important to the sanity of almost every child and even more so for a child with SPD. When we are coming into Cheney from Spokane, there are two routes to take: straight through town or up and around past the college. I originally started taking the college route because there were some new apartments going up and the kids liked to watch the workers and see the progress. Now it is just out of habit. If I ever decide to go through town because I need to go to the bank or something, Shannon will get really upset because we're not going the "right" way. I have learned that I must let him know ahead of time if I need to go through town so he is not taken off guard. The same goes for rearranging anything in the house. He will immediately point out that something is not in the "right" place. This may seem a little OCD and you are correct. A child with SPD will often have some OCD tendencies. As Shannon gets older, he is learning to work around his environment but he is still a little boy and therefore needs coaching most of the time. 

 

Organizing Our Day

 

When it comes to keeping our days consistent, I am thinking of trying out a couple of new things. I wrote out a schedule for me and the kids using A Mother's Rule of Life. I keep this schedule in a sheet protector in my Home Organization Binder that I recently put together. This schedule will serve as a guide for me as we move through our day. I also just ordered a new book/system called Managers of Their Chores. Other moms who have used this system have found their children to be more efficient, independent, and cheerful in completing their chores. I am hoping we can all do our chores at the same time and get everything done quickly right after breakfast and before we begin formal schooling. The main structure of the system is a "chore pack" that the child clips onto their clothing as a hands on and visual guide while completing their chores. The chore pack is a plastic pocket, like a name badge, with a card for each chore the child is to complete in it. So I would hand Chloe and Shannon their chore packs full of (don't know how many yet) chore cards and they would do the card that is on top and when it is done move it the back. This physical movement of the chore cards will be so helpful for Shannon as positive reinforcement. I'll let you know how it goes.

Organizing Our School
Now that I have, hopefully, found a system for getting us through our morning routine smoothly, I needed something to get us into and through our school work smoothly. I have decided to implement Sue Patrick's Workbox System. This system was created by the mother of a child with autism. When I first came across this system a few months ago, I thought it looked like it took up a lot of space, was a big investment, and was a lot of work so I mentally tossed it aside. I came back to the idea after seeing it pop up on various blogs I read. I attended her webinar, Implementing Sue Patrick's Workbox System, presented by the creater last monday, June 28th, and I was impressed by how low maintenance and versitile the system is. She has used this system for children as young as 15 months old so the whole family can do school at the same time. And the start up cost is low. The physical structure is a 4-shelf rack (target $15) and 12 shoebox sized bins (I've seen these for $1 each in many stores). So for about $30 I can give the system a try and see if it works for our family. I am sure I will be reviewing the system a few months into the new year.

So that is how we will frame our days. Now on to curriculum . . . in Part II.

Changes for the Coming School Year

Although I am thoroughly enjoying the lazy days of summer, my wheels have also been turning about this coming school year. When will we start? What curriculum will we use? What will our days look like now that Shannon is entering first grade, Chloe is in pseudo-kindergarten, and Athena is in full blown toddler mode?

Well, I can only begin to answer those questions. This coming year we will be enrolled in Columbia Virtual Academy and I am pretty excited about it. Last year I was very hesitant to enroll in any sort of umbrella school. I wasn't sure how things would go and I wanted a lot of flexibility. I had heard about CVA but was pretty closed minded about the idea. But, a blogger friend of mine got me thinking about it. Her teaching style is very eclectic and free wheeling so I was surprised to find out that her kids were enrolled in CVA. I also discovered a post on Homeschool Distractions that describes the program perfectly. That link will pretty much tell you everything you need to know about the program. The financial reimbursement for curriculum and other learning expenses is very appealing but I also think being in contact with a teacher once a week will keep me and the kids on task. I really wanted to include a field trip to the Portland Zoo in our life science curriculum this year but wasn't sure if we could afford it. With the help of CVA, it just might be possible.

I am also thinking of starting our school year in the first part of August. I want to start a bit early because, and I think I have mentioned this before, we do want to add to our family. We don't know when that will happen, but I would rather start early just in case we are blown off course by first trimester sickness. 

I am still working on choosing curriculum and trying to keep Shannon's sensory needs in mind. First grade has a bit more work than kindergarten and I want this to be a positive experience for all of us. Homeschooling is supposed to allow us more freedom and flexibility, more fun, more opportunities to grow in God's grace, and more time to just be together. These thoughts escaped me at times last year as I anxiously plowed us through the material.

I have a ton of ideas about this coming year that I will share with you over the coming weeks. Meanwhile, we will be spending as much time outside as possible. Thank you, Lord, for the sunshine this week!

Summer Reading

I just took advantage of a hot deal on the Hooked on Phonics website. In the past I have steered clear of these products simply because of the price. But right now they have a complete K-2nd grade set, originally priced at 199.95, marked down to $59.95. But wait . . . there's more! If you use the coupon code SLICK50, it will take another 29.95 off.

I think this will be a great learning tool for the summer. I want to change things up a bit and the kit has a ton of different things to chose from so it will add some variety. It comes with 30 books so that alone is worth the $30.

Notebook: Week of 5/10

Language Arts
Reading
Shannon: Lessons 51 - 53. It seems we have hit another plateau. Shannon seems to get overwhelmed by the length of the stories at the end of each lesson. But we'll keep plugging along slowly.
Chloe: She has not been able to do the lessons that Shannon is on so I want to start working with her, one on one, at her own level. I started at the beginning of the book and went through parts of each lesson to see which lesson I should start on with her. I think we got up to lesson 15 so far.

Poetry
We finally got back to this after a pretty long break. The kids have memorized Bed in Summer and now we are starting on The Cow. I like how at the end of Bed in Summer, Chloe sometimes states, "It's hard to go to bed in the day". She is both summarizing the poem and agreeing with it at the same time.

Handwriting
Mead books: Letters G, Q, U, V, W, R
We had taken a break from this as well and I am amazed at how much each kiddo has developed in their fine motor control. Chloe is actually forming letters and Shannon just zooms right through without getting tired.

Math
Shannon finished up the unit on number placement. He did very well working independently. I had not originally planned on going back to the workbook but he seems to like it. If he gets tired of writing, I just go over the lesson without the worksheet. I should also note that he is doing awesome at printing those numbers. He used to get so frustrated while attempting a "6". But his 6's are great now and he is so proud of himself. He'll call me over to look at his masterpieces, "Check out this six, Mom!"

Chloe, not to be left out, has started completing worksheets from the beginning of the book that we never used because we started with this book mid-year. So she is learning one to one association. It also gives her a chance to work on fine motor skills without calling it handwriting.

Future Learning

I can't believe my first year of educating my children is coming to a close (I like to believe I've been teaching them since they were born but you know what I mean). I think I have learned more than they have about so many things. I never knew how great it was going to be. Working through challenges with Shannon has been so fulfilling. He went from running away whenever I mentioned picking up a pencil, to writing on his own when I don't even ask him to. And watching Chloe go from toddler to scholar over this year has been incredible. I just can't believe how much she has blossomed. She can read! And count to 20! And she loves to open up random books and make up her own stories. I'm so proud of all of us. We have made some great strides this year, which is why I can't help but get excited for next year.

My hope for the rest of this year:

Language Arts

• Reading: Get through as many of the 100 Easy Lessons as possible and start reading easy/beginning reader books. I'm not too worried about him finishing out all of the lessons this year.
• Handwriting: I think we'll just keep copying lines from stories and maybe finish out the Mead book

Math

• I have pretty much put the book away. The rest of the MCP Kindergarten book covers a basic intro to place value, measurement, addition, and subtraction. We started out this year using the first grade book but there were so many problems on each page that Shannon would just look at it and freak out. It was taking us an entire week to get through one lesson and it was not happy for anyone. So we jumped back to the K book. Basically, it covered the same material but less of it and at a slower pace. So, I will probably pull out a couple of worksheets from each of the remaining chapters and call it good for Kindergarten. Now that Shannon is way more comfortable with writing, the first grade book should be just fine.

Religion

• I have really been slacking in this area. I want to finish reading God's Love Story and finish our lap book that is taking forever because I keep losing focus. At this stage, I really think religious studies should just be who we are what we do. Catholicism is so much more then just another subject to cover. Our faith should be reflected in how we live our lives everyday.

Other

• Soccer will go until mid - May and then we'll probably be starting swim lessons and possibly a soccer camp this summer. 
• Many trips to Green Bluff. We always have a great time picking fruit so I'm excited for Green Bluff season. And we always seem to learn along the way.
• Nature walks, now that the weather is getting nice
• Trips to the library
• Lots of fun in the garden with Daddy

When we made the decision to home school last Spring, I decided to start right away and just take it slow. So we have been doing Kindergarten for almost a full year now, with plenty of breaks along the way. This has worked out so well, I've decided to home school year round on purpose. I think it makes the most sense for flexibility. It has been nice being able to take time off when we have just done an Engaged Encounter weekend or when Stacey is out of town.

So, we could actually start on First Grade whenever I get the materials together and plan out a few weeks of lessons. I am working on a lot of stuff around the house right now and we have a few other things coming up in May but probably around June we'll transition into a tiny bit heavier work load. Another advantage to starting early is I have a feeling that sometime next year, we will be thinking about another baby. During week 8 - 16ish of my last pregnancy left me pretty useless so at least if that happens again I will be ahead of the game.

I have been thinking about next year's curriculum for some time now. I'm pretty excited. I haven't made all of the final decisions but I have decided that I will just buy materials for Shannon and then adapt what I can for Chloe. So far they have done pretty well at the same level. There are a few things that go over Chloe's head but for the most part she's pretty engaged. I can't believe that in the public school system she would still have two more years before starting kindergarten. That's just crazy talk. That girl wants to learn!

So stay tuned for the reveal of next year's learning materials and tools. Oooooooo. You're on the edge of your seat, I know it!

Notebook: Week of 4/19

Language Arts
100 Easy Lessons 47-50: we slowed down a bit this week on the lessons but we attempted to read some books. Shannon made the transition pretty easily. Watching him attempt to sound out longer words is amazing. I usually help him but the fact that he tries is awesome.

Handwriting: we continued doing some copy work. And he has been doing a lot of writing on his own.

Math
We have been just doing math as it comes up. Lately, Shannon has been pointing out the speed limit signs, reading them to me and then telling me whether I can go faster or I have to slow down. And money, time, weather, the date, and other topics are also covered on a pretty regular basis.

Other
The weather was pretty nice this week so we spent a few days at the park. Shannon had soccer practice on thursday and then a game on Saturday where scored his first goal. Woo hoo!

And we went on a field trip to Spokane Family Farm. They had a customer appriciation day in celebration of their one year anniverasary. They spoiled us with bottomless milk and cookies and we went on a short tour of the farm to learn about the milking and bottling process. 

Shannon jumping down from the hay after I hollared at him to get down. And then getting out of a tree that he should not have been climbing. -sigh- Boys.

  Chloe tried so hard to touch those ducks.

 Cute baby piggies.

Athena with chocolate cookie all over her face. Hey, she's a customer too and she wanted to be appreciated.

Notebook: Week of 4/11

Language Arts
100 Easy Lessons: 42 - 47
Shannon has been cruising through the lessons now. He really likes the story at the end of each lesson so that is his motivation to get through the first part. There were a couple days where we did two lessons in one day. He wanted to get the book out again in the evenings.

Handwriting
I got out a piece of paper and wrote a line from the story that we read, and he copied it onto the next line. He did it without any frustration. He also came into the office one afternoon and sat down at Stacey's desk and started to write onto an index card with a highlighter. He asked me how to spell one word but other then that he wrote the rest himself. It was pretty small print. Very impressive, Little Man.

Math
I put the book away for now and just started doing practical short lessons every other day. One day we got out a hand full of change and named the coins, gave them values, and added coins together. Another day, the kids were playing with the Melissa and Doug wooden clock so I sat down with them and taught them about the minute hand and gave them a little intro on telling time with hours and minutes. They were both really engaged.

Religion
We worked on their Things We See In Church lap books. They are slowly being completed.

Other
Stacey and the kids have been taking care of the seeds they planted three weeks ago. Here we have our beautiful carrots . . .

. . .  and then the habanero. 

Look at that one crazy habanero plant sticking up. It is quite the over achiever.

Notebook: Week of 3/22

Language
100 Easy Lessons 35 - 40

Shannon was on such a reading high that we just stuck with that this week. I want to get to the library soon to pick up some easy readers and see how he does.

Chloe was attempting to read the program during the Chrism Mass today and she did quite well on some parts. What a smarty.

Science with guest lecturer: Daddy
Stacey woke up last friday not feeling very well. The poor guy was probably burnt out from wokring a million hours everyday and then being abandoned by his wife every evening for one thing or another. And then sleeping with a teething baby. Oye. But after he got a few extra hours of sleep in and some general relaxing, he put the kids to work planting seeds in the middle of the kitchen.

This is the first year that we are attempting to plant anything other than a few flowers out front. I'm really curious to see what comes up. Stacey has been flipping through gardening magazines and seed catalogs with the kids in the evenings. And he let them pick out a few veggies to plant. And of course the kids are learning along the way.

That was about it for last week. Pretty laid back. And we're taking Holy Week off so I probably won't have much to report next week either.

Success!

I mentioned in a few notebooks past that Shannon was struggling with his reading lessons. I decided to keep plugging along but I told myself that as soon as he starts to get frustrated I would just say, "Hey, I think we've done enough. Great job!" and move on. But as soon as I would say that, he would calm down and want to keep going. So after about a week of that, things just started clicking. It is so amazing. He is just reading up a little storm over here. What's interesting is that Chloe, who was quite a bit more comfortable with reading single words than Shannon was, has now fallen a bit behind as she seems to get confused when reading words together in a sentence. Which is totally fine considering she is only three years old! I didn't expect her to learn more then just the letters and maybe some sounds this year.

It is so incredible what shifts can take place in just a matter of weeks. I feel so blessed to be the one who gets to facilitate their learning. If I can remember to get a video of Shannon reading, I will post one. I am the worst at taking pictures. I like to think it is because I am so busy living the moments that I forget to stop and take pictures. Yes . . . that's it.

Notebook: Week of 3/15

Language Arts
100 Easy Lessons: 33 - 35
Mead Handwriting: Letter O
Poetry: Bed In Summer

Math
Review and catch up on past worksheets not completed

Religion
I made an effort to lead the kids in spontaneous prayers of thanks and petition (please God help me to make good choices, etc) in hopes that it will start to become more of a habit.

Other
Gymnastics
Soccer (I was hoping it would not overlap with Gymnastics but only for two weeks)
Occupational Therapy
Many days at the playground

Arts and Crafts
Last week was a busy week so I never got around to creating any planned art projects but on several mornings, I woke up to Shannon sitting at Stacey's desk, arts and crafts bins open, creating masterpieces. He made this card for me one morning:

I also created a card for Shannon but I think he ran off with it before I could get a picture. It's a shame too because it was some of my best work. : )

Notebook: Week of 3/8

Reading: 100 Easy Lessons 29 - 32. This week went better so I think we will keep doing 4 lessons a week for now.

Math: Began chapter on Order and Place Value

Poetry: Continued learning "Bed in Summer". First two stanzas are pretty firm.

Handwriting: Worked in Mead books. Shannon seemed to be getting a little bored so I printed out some worksheets from Donna Young's website. (An awesome resource. Free stuff galore!)

Religion: Started working on "The Things I See In Church" lapbooks

Other: Gymnastics & Occupational Therapy

Unfortunately, the weather was pretty poopy all week, so we didn't get to go outside too much. Today, we finally had some good weather so Stacey had the kids outside with him for four hours, working in the yard. We shall all sleep well tonight.

Heart of the Matter Conference

I finally got the links to the MP3s for the conference I virtually attended a few weeks back. I still haven't managed to listen to every session but, to be honest, many of the sessions were rather fluffy. It was good for creating some overall motivation and maybe some cute ideas but not a lot of real beefy content. The entire conference was only $13 so I'm definitely not complaining. If anything, it motivated me to seek out some Catholic home school conferences that I could possibly attend in the future. Some of the sessions got pretty intense, in the way of faith based content, and it didn't quite line up with what I believe, as a Catholic. It was pretty easy to sift through it and get what I wanted out of it so it wasn't a complete disaster or anything. I thought I would give you a run down of my favorite sessions and some links that I found helpful.

Carol Barnier: "What Are You Thinking? Learning Style and Beyond"

This session stood out, ironically, because the learning style topic is talked about over and over in homeschool books, web sites, etc. Carol addressed this up front. She talked about how, as a homeschooling mom, we are told to identify our child's learning style and then teach to that. "If your child is a visual learner, teach visually" and then we are left to our own devices. She has written a book called "The Big What Now Book of Learning Styles" which is supposed to give us methods of teaching all sorts of subjects to each of the different learning styles. Unfortunately amazon doesn't have an option to "look inside" the book. Boooo. I always like to read the table of contents to get a feel for a book and if it is right for me. Her hour long presentation was pretty interesting and gave a lot of ideas. I actually listened to that one live so I plan on giving it another listen and taking some notes.


Katie Kubesh: "Beginning Lapbooking"

Somehow, I had never even heard of lapbooking until I listened to this session. After it was described, I then turned around and explained it to my husband. I kinda think of the lapbook as a miniature version of those big awkward foam board projects I was made to do in middle school. I did one in sixth grade on Paul Revere and then one in seventh on Joan of Arc. Basically, you pick a topic, your child does little mini book and different projects around this topic and puts all of the new found knowledge into a lapbook. It's kinda awesome because I am, naturally, not very artsy and crafty but I want to be for my kids. The lapbook really speaks to my crazy organizational side. You get to research a topic and then organize all of it in these adorable and crafty lapbooks. And then you can reference the lapbook over and over. And you can store them pretty easily because they don't take up much space. I was pretty impressed. Katie explains in her session how to create your own topic and come up with the minibooks and such for the lapbook or you can let her do all the prep for you. She has a company, Hands of a Child, that creates the outline for the project for you. It's really hard to explain so you'll just have to check out the site. The kids and I always seem to do our craft projects based around whatever we're studying in religion or coinciding with the liturgical year so I wanted to find something more Catholic specific. I found Lapbooks for Catholics and purchased "The Things I See In Church" lapbook. We just started working on it today. I was getting a little bored with the Who Am I? curriculum that we've been working through this year so I thought we would take a break and work on this instead.

Jim Mueller: "Essential Science"

This guy loves him some physics! You must check out his web site. He was very captivating. He basically talked about ways to engage kids in learning about physics. What I found pretty interesting is he made it clear that you don't need to do a whole bunch of math to study and enjoy physics. He has a bunch of his own curricula for sale on his site and he actually teaches classes for a really reasonable price that your child can attend via the internet. I dare your kid to fall asleep. He totally reminds me of Bill Nye the Science Guy. I just find science nerds (ie: my husband) adorable. He mentioned that kids don't really need any formal teaching, involving experiments and whatnot, until they reach the age of 8 or 9. Up until that point, it's just about observing and learning about the world we live in. This totally falls in line with the classical model of education, which we use, so I do think I will revisit his materials when it comes time to find a science curriculum in a few years.

There was also a session that addressed teaching kids with Sensory Processing Disorder (presented by Heather Laurie) so, of course, I was interested. But, because I have already read a million books on the subject and been seeing an occupational therapist, I was already pretty familiar with the material that was presented. Still a good listen though.

Here's the site for the conference, if you wanna give it a look.

Notebook: Week of 3/1

Wow! This week was a little crazy. While our house was turned upside down for the basement renovation, we tried to do as many out of the house activites as possible. And, as many home educating moms know, even when we take a week off from formal schooling, the kids just keep learning despite my greatest effort to mess it up.

On Monday the kids spent ther entire day with Granny (my dad's mom) while I stayed home and painted. Oh. My. Gosh. I was soooooo sore. But the kids had a blast. They love being with their Granny.

On Tuesday we went to Alton's to get our brakes, which have been grinding for a few weeks now, done. I knew it would take a little while but when we were quoted 3 hours, I must admit I was in a bit of a panic. But we actually enjoyed ourselves quite a bit. Luckily, I had prepared and brought the stroller and hats and gloves. We walked over to Jack in the Box and had lunch and then walked to Starbucks for some hot cocoa. Then we walked over to Walmart and Shannon and Chloe helped me look at possible birthday gifts for Athena's big First Birthday coming up in April. After we picked the car up, we went to the park to further enjoy the nice weather. After dinner we were off to gymnastics where Shannon showed the signs of sensory wackiness. I call it "crazy eyes" when I talk to his occupational therapist. I'm not really sure what triggered this episode but I can guess he was over stimulated by the day's events. He tried to get the sensory input he needed to calm himself by throwing himself onto the mats and rolling on the floor. I knew right away what was happening and eventually, like 2 hours later, he was able to settle down.

Wednesday morning we were off to Occupational Therapy. And then I spent the day returning e-mails for Engaged Encounter and preparing to teach childbirth ed for Catholic Charities. The kids played outside and watched a few movies on my laptop.

Thursday was the big carpet install. After the installer left, the kids were so excited to run around the basement. We spent the rest of the day putting some of the toys downstairs and getting some things back where they belong.

Friday we went to our home school group.  The group decided to have the kids do some sort of presentation related to Lent. Shannon and Chloe brought their rosaries and told the group how they pray with Daddy every night. And they recited the Hail Mary as well. Super cute.

Throughout the days and nights, the kids would often open up their 100 Lessons book and read words to each other. They would also ask me how to spell things or play with the magnetic letters on the fridge. We still did our reading at bedtime and math is just unavoidable in everyday life so that was taken care of. And we recited our poetry throughout the week as well. I felt pretty bad about taking yet another week off from school but now that I've reflected on our past week, I realize we did a lot more than I thought. 

I was also off my game a little bit last week because Athena started having a lot of trouble sleeping starting Wednesday night. I finally took her in to the doc today and she has an ear infection and the infant equivalent of a sinus infection. -sigh- The poor thing. So we got her on some antibiotics and she's on the road to recovery. And I am really looking forward to getting a decent night of rest before we hit the grind tomorrow.

Notebook: Week of 2/22/10

Week 20

Teach Your Child to Read: Lessons 25-28
Shannon really struggled these last two lessons. We'll see how it goes this week but I may slow the lessons down to half a lesson a day. He can sound out all the sounds in a word but then can't process what he said. I think his sensory integration issues are getting in the way. With some time and practice I'm sure he'll be just fine.

Chloe is getting the concepts pretty easily. She opens the lessons book up and reads from it on her own all the time. Here's a video of her being awesome.




Poetry
We're working on Bed in Summer by Robert Louis Stevenson. Shannon and Chloe have both memorized The first Stanza and half of the second

Handwriting
Letters I, T, J, and D
Shannon works pretty quickly through these without complaint. We've come such a long way.

Chloe traces the letter the best she can ans then scribbles all over the paper. I still can't figure out if she's right or left handed.

Math
MCP Worksheets: Chapter 6, Numbers 1-20
Shannon speeds through these without any help. He's picked up on counting mixed coins pretty quickly too. Chloe was doing awesome until we got to number 14 or 15. She gets some of the numbers confused. But she just does what she can and then scribbles on the paper.

Religion
Read a couple pages out of God's Love Story
Who Am I? Lesson 11: Jesus is God the Son
Did a few craft projects, made a little bible so the kids cold draw their favorite bible story. Shannon drew a picture of baby Jesus. He pretty much loves anything having to do with Christmas. He asked me to draw the angels singing so I did my best.

Chloe drew a heart because she loves Jesus. Awwwwwww. She wanted me to help her color it but wouldn't let me color red. She wanted it black. Who am I to tell the artist what color the heart should be?

Other stuff
Occupational Therapy
Went to the park
Gymnastics (finally back after missing two weeks due to sick kids)
Stacey has started reading seed catalogs with the kid at night so they can pick out what they want to attempt to grow in the garden this year. Stacey is in charge of this project. I'm staying out of it.